This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

I hope I'm not the only one who saw a connection between two articles in The Salt Lake Tribune on Aug. 2.

The first article reported that the Salt Lake County GOP is publicizing a list of Republican candidates for nonpartisan local races in response to requests from voters, who apparently can't be bothered with checking out the actual qualifications of the candidates ("Nonpartisan elections take sharply partisan turn").

The other article reported that John Swallow is being defended by his own Utah Attorney General's office, even as the state spends millions of dollars to investigate his shenanigans. So taxpayers are being stiffed for both Swallow's investigation and his defense ("Taxpayers help foot the bill for Swallow defense").

Let's face it: The only reason why characters like Swallow get elected is that a majority of Utahns mindlessly vote for whichever candidates are anointed by the Republican Party, regardless of how slimy they may be.